[CommanderDJ]

Hey guys,
I shamefully bring myself before you to ask for your help again. Errors are attacking me once more.
I recently made a few updates to the messages.tbl for my mod, and upon integrating it into the mod's VP file, I can no longer start FRED or do any missions using the mod. Every time I try, I get things like this:

Code: [Select]

messages.tbl(line 2:
Error: Missing required token: [#Personas]. Found [t$Message: XSTR("Target acquired]  instead.

<no module>! KiFastSystemCallRet
<no module>! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>


About four others appear, and after clicking past them all, the mission loads okay except for the fact that the personas I made don't work. I realize that there's something wrong with my messages.tbl, but I can't think of what it is. And the worst part is (The E is going to kill me) I'm not getting any fs2_open.log file in my /data folder. Like, there's actually nothing there. What have I done wrong? If you need additional info/files for a diagnosis, let me know.

CommanderDJ

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Post your messages.tbl

[CommanderDJ]

'tis attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[FUBAR-BDHR]

What format did you save that file in?  Resave it in plain text with no formatting.

[CommanderDJ]

I must've clicked something in Notepad++ that I shouldn't have. It was set to use Mac formatting when I'm on a Windows. I resaved it properly and it works. Thank you!

[Getter Robo G]

DJ... May I ask a question after this one? (good)... 

What status of completion is your "Mod".

I ask cause you realize that MODS do not need VP's until you are finished working.

VP's are complete packages made by the mod team once all work has been completed and you're ready to distribute to the public. They are not actually needed, but are compacted and placed into one (or few) large file(s). They are not intended to be altered to changed on a whim constantly. Although you can, it's just not logical to have to keep changing your VP when standard Mod folder format is not only more construction friendly, it also helps for on the fly changes.

What's the point of recompiling something over and over?

And by keeping a "working" copy of all files (in a separate area), if say your newly altered msg.tbl screws up, you simply stick your older "working" copy in and bingo, game works again and you can continue modding as you slowly try to figure out what changes you did in the new one were wrong.

Do you see the logic in this while your mod is under construction???

[The E]

What Getter said. Building a VP is the very last thing you should do, right before you release the thing.

[Shivan Hunter]

Yeah, the only purpose at all to a vp anyway is to have one neat little package containing all your data. They're hell to work with if you're still developing. I tried it once, and quickly stopped.

I'd like to take this chance to also pimp SVN a bit. If you mod is large at all, you could use a versioning system...

[CommanderDJ]

DJ... May I ask a question after this one? (good)... 

What status of completion is your "Mod".

I ask cause you realize that MODS do not need VP's until you are finished working.

VP's are complete packages made by the mod team once all work has been completed and you're ready to distribute to the public. They are not actually needed, but are compacted and placed into one (or few) large file(s). They are not intended to be altered to changed on a whim constantly. Although you can, it's just not logical to have to keep changing your VP when standard Mod folder format is not only more construction friendly, it also helps for on the fly changes.

What's the point of recompiling something over and over?

And by keeping a "working" copy of all files (in a separate area), if say your newly altered msg.tbl screws up, you simply stick your older "working" copy in and bingo, game works again and you can continue modding as you slowly try to figure out what changes you did in the new one were wrong.

Do you see the logic in this while your mod is under construction???

What you say makes sense. I'll definitely be doing that next time I work on something. I was simply too stupid to realize that you could just put stuff under the correct subfolders and the game would use them. I just didn't see it. I don't know why. I guess I was lucky that my VP file only required very minor changes, and quite rarely. Thanks for waking me up from my idiocy.

Oh, and to answer your question, my mod only requires one more mission to be FREDded, and I don't think I'll be needing to change anything in the VP for that.